Sarah Small’s mind-bending ‘Tableau Vivant’ video (NSFW)

Two years in the making, on May 23rd and 24th, 2011, Photographer Sarah Small and collaborators brought to life 120 models and musicians, at Skylight One Hanson. Chosen as one of Time Out New York’s Top Critic’s Picks, and listed in the New York Times, Flavorpill and more, the 120 model Tableau had the attention of many, long before the cast took the stage.

Maintaining it’s roots in her still photography series, The Delirium Constructions, and already the most ambitious project of her career, in 2011, for the first time, Small explored, within the Tableau Vivant, a specific social phenomenon: the ritual of marriage. With its airs of pageantry and religious rectitude, wedding ceremonies celebrate the most intimate joining of two individuals in the most public sphere, providing rich fodder for examination within the project’s framework. On the evenings of May 23rd and 24th, Small acted as the legal officiant for three couples (two weddings and a vow renewal ceremony), as she simultaneously directed the attendant Tableau Vivant cast in their own explorations of the theme, mingling performance art with reality in a compelling cocktail.